More than 40 people have drowned off Sicily in the latest sinking of a migrant boat between Libya and Italy, Italian media reports.
Almost 10,000 migrants have been rescued trying to reach the Italian coast in recent days. Hundreds have died since the start of the year.
Italy has called for more help from the European Union in handling the crisis.
Earlier this week, about 400 people were believed to have drowned when their boat capsized.
Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Italy had “not had an adequate response from the EU”.
But the European Union has said it has no “silver bullet” for the problem of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe.
